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EVENING JOURNAL DOCUMENTS, (No. 1.) 



THE WAR POLICY 



ADMI^ISTEATION". 



LETTER OF THE PRESIDENT 

To the Union Mass Convention at Springfield, Illinois. 

II ■ . 

EXEOUTrVB mansio:n', 

Washington, Aug. 16, 1863. 
Hon. James C. Conkling : 

My Deae Sm: 

Your letter inviting me to attend a mass meeting of 
unconditional Union men, to be held at the capital of Illinois 
on the 3d day of September, has been received. It would be 
very agreeable to me to thus meet my old friends at my own 
home, but I cannot just now be absent fi'om this city so long 
as the visit there would require. 

The meeting is to be of all those who maintain uncondi- 
tional devotion to the Union ; and I am sure my old pohtical 
friends will thank me for tendering, as I do, the nation's grati- 
tude to those other noble men whom no partisan malice or 
partisan hope can make false to the nation's life. 

There are those who are dissatisfied with me. To such I 
would say, you desire peace, and you blame me that we do- 
not have it. But how can we attain it ? There are but three 
conceivable ways. Fust, to suppress the rebellion by force 
of arms. This I am trying to do. Are you for it ? If you 
are, so far w® are agreed. If you are not for it, a second way 



2 PRESIDENT S LETTER. '^J^ij 

is to give up the Union. I am against this. Are yoii for it ? 
If you are, you should say so plainly. If you are not for force^ 
nor yet for dissolution, there only remains some imaginary 
conrpromise. " 

I do not believe any compromise embracing the mainte- 
nance of the Union is no\y jiossible. All that I learn leads to 
a directly opposite belief. The strength of tlie rebellion is in 
its military — its army. Tliat army dominates all the country 
and all the people within its range. 

Any offer of terms made by any man or men within that 
range, in o])])osition to thiit army, is simply nothing for the 
present, because such man or men have no power whatever 
to enforce their side of a compromise, if one were made with 
them. 

To illustrate : Suppose refugees from the South and peace 
men of the North get together in convention, and frame and 
proclaim a compromise embracing a restoration of the Union, 
in what way can that comi^romise be used to keep Lee's army 
out of Pennsylvania? 

Meade's army can keep Lee's army out of Pennsylvania ; 
and I think can ultimately drive it out of existence ; but no 
paper comi)romise to which the controllers of Lee's army are 
not agreed, can at all affect that army. In an effort at such 
compromise we should waste time which the enemy would 
improve to our disadvantage ; and that w^ould be all. 

A compromise, to be effective, must be made either with 
those who control the rebel army, or with the people first 
liberated from the domination of that army by the successes 
of our army. Now, allow me to assure you that no word or 
intimation from that rebel army, or from any of the men con- 
trolling it, in relation to any peace compromise, has ever come 
to my knoAvledge or belief. All charges and intimations to 
the contrarj" are deceptive and groundless ; and I xjromise you 
that if any such proposition shall hereafter come, it shall not 
be rejected and kept a secret from you. I freely acknowledge 
myself the servant of the i)eople according to the bond of ser- 
vice — the United States Constitution — and that as such I 
am responsible to them. 

But, to be plain, you are dissatisfied with me about the 
negro. Quite likely there is a difference of opinion between 



PRESIDENT'S LETTEIi. 8 

yon and ni.yself upon tliat subject. I certainly wish that all 
men could be free, ^^ hile I snixjjose you do not ; yet, I have 
neither adopted nor proj)o,sed any measure whicli is not con- 
sistent with even your view, provided you are for tiie Union. 

I siigi>'ested comi)ensated emancipation, to which you replied 
yon wished not to be taxed to buy negroes. But I had not 
asked you to be taxed to buy negroes, except in such way as 
to save you from greater taxation to save the Union exclu- 
sively by other means. 

You dislike the Emancipation Proclamation, and perhaps 
you would have it retracted. You say it is unconstitutional. 
I think differently. I think that the Oonstitution invests its 
Oomniander-in-Ohief with the law of war in time of war. The 
most that can be said, if so much, is that slaves are property. 
Is there, has there ever been, any question that, by the law 
of war, property, both of enemies and friends, may be taken 
when needed ? 

And is it not needed whenever taking it helps us or hurts 
the enemy ? Armies the world over destroy enemies' pro- 
perty when they cannot use it ; and even destroy their own 
to keep it from the enemy. Civilized belligerents do all in 
their power to help themselves or hurt the enemy, except a 
few things regarded as barbarous or cruel. Among the excep- 
tions are the massacre of vanquished foes and non-combatants, 
male and female. 

But the Proclamation, as law, either is valid or is not valid. 
If it is not valid, it needs no retraction. If it is valid, it can- 
not be retracted, any more than the dead can be brought to 
life. Some of you profess to think its retraction would ope- 
rate favorably for the Union. Why better after the retraction 
than before the issue ? 

There w^as more than a year and a half of trial to suppress 
the rebellion before the Proclamation was issu ed ; the last one 
hundred days of which passed under an explicit notice that it 
was coming unless averted by those in revolt returning to 
their allegiance. The war has certainly progTessed as favo- 
rably for us since the issue of the Proclamation as before. 

I know, as fully as one can know the opinions of others, 
that some of the commanders of our arinies in the field who 
have given us our most important successes, believe the 



4 PRESIDENT'S -LETTER. 

emancipation policy and the use of colored troops constitute 
the heaviest blow yet dealt to the rebellion ; and that at least 
one of those important successes could not have been achieved 
when it was, but for the aid of black soldiers. 

Among the commanders holding these views are some who 
have never had any aflBnity with what is called Abolitiouism, 
or with Republican party politics, but who hold them purely 
as military opinions. I submit these opinions as being enti- 
tled to some weight against the objections often urged, that 
emancipation and arming the blacks are unwise as military 
measures, and were not adopted as such in good faith. 

You say that you will not fight to free negroes. Some of 
them seem to be willing to fight for you. But no matter ; 
fight you then exclusively to save the Union. I issued the 
Proclamation on purjjose to aid you in saving the Union. 

Whenever you shall have conquered all resistance to the 
Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it will be an 
apt time then for you to declare that you will not fight to free 
negroes. 

I thought that in your struggle for the Union, to whatever 
extent the negroes should cease helping the enemy, to that 
extent it weakened the enemy in his resistance to you. Do 
you think differently ? I thought that whatever negroes can 
be got to do as soldiers, leaves just so much less for white 
^soldiers to do in saving the Union. Does it appear otherwise 
to you ? But negroes, like other people, act upon motives. 
Why should they do anything for us if we will do nothing for 
them ? If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted 
by the strongest motive, even the promise of their freedom. 
And the promise being made, must be kept. 

The signs look better. The Father of Waters again goes 
unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great Northwest for it. 
Nor yet wholly to them. Three hundred miles up they met 
New England, Empire, Keystone, and Jersey, hewing their 
way right and left. The sunny South, too, in more colors 
than one, also lent a hand. On the si^ot their part of the his- 
tory was jotted down in black and white. The job was a 
great national one, and let none be banned who bore an 
honorable part in it. AVhile those who have cleared the great 
river may well be proud, even that is not all. 



PRESIDENT'S LETTER. 5 

It is hard to say that anything has been more bravely and 
well done than at Autietam, Murfi?eesboro, Gettysburg, and 
on many fields of lesser note. 

Nor must Uncle Sam's web-feet be forgotten. At all the 
watery margins they have been present. JSTot only on the 
deep sea, the broad bay, and the rapid river, but also u^ the 
narrow, muddy bayou, aud wherever the ground was a httle 
damp, they have been aud made their tracks. 

Thanks to all for the great EepubUc, for the x)rinciple it 
lives by and keeps alive — for man's vast future — thanks to all. 

Peace does not ai^pear so chstant as it did. I hope it will 
come soon, and come to stay, and so come as to be worth the 
keeping in all future time. 

It will then have been x^roved that among free men there 
can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and 
that they who take such appeal are sure to lose then* case, 
and i^ay the cost. 

And then there will be some black men who can remember 
that, with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and steady eye, 
and well-poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to 
this great consummation ; while I fear there will be some 
white ones unable to forget that, with malignant heart and 
deceitful speech, they have strove to hinder it. 

Still, let us not be over sanguine of a speedy final triumph. 
Let us be quite sober. Let us diligently apply the means, 
never doubting that a just God, in his own good time, will 
give us the rightful result. 

Yours, very truly, 

A. LINCOLN. 



LETTER OF EDWARD EVERETT 
To the Union Mass Convention at Springfield, Illinois. 



Boston, Aug. 24, 1863. 
James C. Conlding, J^sq., Chairman, &c.: 

My Dear Sir : 

I received a few days ago your letter of the 12th, iuviting 
me to atteii.d " the grand mass meeting of the Unconditional 
Union men of the State of Illinois," to be held on the 3d of 
September at Springfield. 

It will not be in my power to attend the meeting, but its 
objects, as explained by you, have my cordial sympathy. 

The elections soon to be held will be of more than usual 
importance. They will throw light on the great question, 
how far it is x^ossible for a free Government, controlled in its 
legislative and executive branches by popular choice, to prose- 
cute with vigor a war of considerable duration, and which 
entails heavy burdens ujjon the community. As a represen- 
tative government is mainly carried ou by party organizations, 
the great interests of the country, both in peace and war, are 
too apt to become the arena in which the ojjposite parties 
strive for tbe mastery. Questions in themselves of secondary 
importance to the general welfare, are often contested with 
vehemence and passion, and that by men of ability and patriot- 
ism working tlieniselves up to the belief that they are contend- 
ing for matters of yital importance. Within my experience, 
the politics of the country have successively turned upon fom* 
or five questions, regarded at the time as of the greatest 
moment, but now utterly obsolete and forgotten. 

These unprofitable contests, while they last, are the source 
of great embarrassment to the administration of the general 
Government for the time being, which finds itself thwarted in 
all its measures, however patriotic and beneficent their ten- 
dency, by indiscriminate opposition, aiming only at an elec- 
tioneering triumph. This is a very serious evil in time of 



EVERETT'S LETTER. 7 

peace, greatly eiiliaucing the diflficulties and burdens of public 
life, and liigldy detrimental to the public interests. 

In time of war the evil becomes one of treniendous magni- 
tude. The questions tbat then present themselves are natu- 
rally more important than ordinary political issues in time of 
peace, while every blow strnck at the measures of the Govern- 
ment, though designed only to effect a cbange of admiiustra- 
tion, really aifords aid and comfort to the enemy. 

This will })e the Ciise when the opposition to government 
measures is sincerely dictated by honest diherence of opinion. 
Nay, it will even be the case when the opposition is directed 
against measures palpably mistaken either on grounds of 
principle or policy. No Administration is free from error, 
and if i>arty spirit is allowed to prevail, its errors will be 
severely criticised, usually exaggerated, and often fiercely 
denounced, till the attention of the country, instead of being 
hxed on the great juid main questions on which all good 
patriots are agreed, is turned to side issues of minor and often 
factitious importance. In this way the administration of the 
Government is weakened and endjarrassed, and the vigorous 
prosecution of the war, which every patriotic citizen admits 
to be the ])aramount object, is in some degree paralyzed. 

I have doubted the policy of some measiu'es of the Admini- 
stration, and strongly disapproved others, but regarding the 
persons in power for the time being as the constitutional 
agents of the people for carrying on the Government, con- 
sidering the war which has been forced upon us by the ambi- 
tious demagogues of the South as a question of national life 
or death — that to have the doctrine of secession established 
at the mouth of the rebel cannon, is simply to consign the 
country to a future of eternal border war, and to lay its dis- 
honored fragments at the feet of foreign powers ; I cannot 
but think it unpatriotic to attempt, for the sake of a party 
triumph, to make i)olitical capital out of the difticulties, or, if 
you idease, the errors, unavoidably incident to the conduct 
of a war of such gigantic dimensions. 

It is a pretty safe test, in cases of this kind, to ask how the 
views and measures of a [)arty are regarded by the common 
enemy. Applying this test in the present case, nothing is 
more certain than that the triumph at the approaching elec- 



8 EVERETT'S LETTER. 

tion of any party, organized and operating for the prostration 
of the Administration, would be regarded with unmingled 
satisfaction by the leaders of the rebellion and their sympa- 
thizers abroad. Indeed their last hope is in our divisions. 

Candor requires me to add, that, if it is the duty of good 
citizens to abstain from factious opposition, it is, in time of 
war, not less the duty of the Administration, in civil as in 
military and naval affairs, to assume a position wholly inde- 
pendent of party. I am afraid it is impossible, in time of 
peace, to carry on a representative government except on a 
party basis. During the existence of war, especially of a war 
which tasks to the utmost the exertions and resources of the 
country, party support, in proportion as it is relied on, is an 
element not of strength but of weakness. 

If all good men and good patriots in the loyal States, 
whether in or out of office — sacrificing, when necessary, a 
little of the pride of personal feeling and of party associa- 
tion — would cordially unite for the attainment of the objects, 
which they all approve, viz. : the vigorous prosecution, and 
successful termination of the war, the next New Year's day 
would witness the prostration of the rebellion and its leaders, 
the return of peace, and the restoration of the Union. 

With the best wishes that the meeting at Springfield may 
promote these great ends, I remain, dear sir. 
Very respectfully. 

Your friend and fellow citizen, 

EDWAED EVEEETT. 



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